Prologue
‘Beyond Sanitation’ is the story of Open Defaecation Free campaign in Jalna district of Maharashtra. Working for this campaign during last one year has been an immense learning experience in realizing the needs/priorities of the people, analyzing the delivery mechanisms to the grass root, and finding ways of achieving the single most change required for development-positive attitude. In Jalna district, 156 Gram Panchayats and 288 villages have become open defaecation free till March 2006. Besides the bhumi putras of this district, we have been supported immensely by Sh. Dapke, sarpanch, Bahirgaon, Aurangabad and Sh. Madhav Patil, sarpanch, Selgaon, Nanded. As we all worked for this campaign, and saw the results, it was only natural to give priority to this work. Perhaps no other Government programme necessitates people’s participation as elaborately as this programme, and hence perhaps the sustainability of this programme is most assured. The first chapter describes the manpower-within and outside Government-who have worked for this campaign with passion, bordering on to velpana [madness]. The second and third chapters describe the learning experiences in triggering change. The special role of people’s representatives and trigger persons is explained in next two chapters. And the last chapter tries to explain why we call this campaign, ‘beyond sanitation’.
Contents
Chapter 1 The Manpower
Chapter 2 The Triggers
Chapter 3 The Wave spreads
Chapter 4 People’s Representatives
Chapter 5 Community Leaders
Chapter 6 Women Involvement, nay, Empowerment
Chapter 7 Of Outcomes
The manpower
“Akele hi chale the raah par,
dost milte gaye aur karvaan banta gaya..”
Who shall do this work? Whose responsibility is this? In Jalna district, one good thing that happened was central pooling of some of our employees for this work. It was essential that some people work for this campaign exclusively so that they can give enough time that this work demands. This TSC team was, from the beginning, made to work quite differently than hierarchical bureaucratic set-up. It works like a family. There is trust, first of all. All know, that the campaign is a difficult one, involves dedication and hard work, and therefore those who are in it are not out of compulsion. These men/women have determination of steel. When they approach a village, they are not sure as to how many times or for how many months, they may have to interact with that village. But they are positive. They have the skills-technical, inter-personal communication…they are equipped. They know of the trigger/potentially trigger persons in the village. They know, that someone from the village must imbibe the passion to continue the work in between their visits to the village.
This core team, we designated as TSC coordinators. However, we realized that scaling up would require much more manpower and all available human potential, both within and outside the Government has to be involved to attain sustainable and best results. We then chose our employees [the better ones], working in those villages [240 in 2005-06], which we had aimed to be ODF by March 2006. This staff was motivated, then, not by carrots or sticks but by projecting this campaign as a sole opportunity for us all to improve our image in the society; to break the belief [or at least shake it to some extent], that Government machinery is incapable of delivery of results, and let us breathe in the air of self-esteem and self-confidence. Initial two to three months we spent in motivating this task force, and training them and showing confidence in them.
Once the goal was clear, and there was motivation, then, as we all realize, there were many ways to achieve it. The campaign has been a learning experience in experimenting with different modes of communication to bring about a positive behavioural change. We realized that rapport must be struck with the village at the first and each step. When we started this campaign, the first principle that we followed was that our mindset had to change first before we stepped out to change the mindset of the people. We constantly remind ourselves that if we go to the village to do ‘margdarshan’ sitting on inevitably unequal platforms, nothing much would be achieved. Hence a very deliberate attempt to enter village leaving our ‘government clothes’ out. The village employees, in the course of their work, do not get to meet [rather the people do not get to see them!] all in the village. By all, we necessarily mean including the economically and socially backward. The crux of this campaign is that because it is a village goal, all in the village must be involved. A Gram Sevak/ Anganwadi karyakarti/teacher may not have reached out to all in the village. Usually, there has not been a forum in the village to discuss the common issues of the village. There are Gram Sabhas, but usually to select few individual beneficiaries...and hence involvement of all people of the village is rarely achieved. In this campaign, therefore we spent about fifteen days to one month developing rapport with the people. This was a time not to preach, but listen. PRA exercises were conducted in the villages, and corner meetings, one-to-one dialogues were held to have a better idea of the village in general, and to pick up from there as to what would trigger change in that particular village.
Rapport building continues through the process. It only gets strengthened with time. This happens through small gestures like addressing villagers as kaka, mavshi, and aaji; by resisting efforts to find faults with the village, and appreciating their good work immediately. For e.g., in Shevga, the village had contributed to provide school uniforms to the village, in Palaskheda, the village was appreciated because a boy of that village had stood first in the district level Gram Sevak entrance examination; and also because the village had successfully implemented the vyasan-mukti [ban on alcoholism] programme. Such gestures are necessary, because in the first place, they make a village to think about themselves as one unit, and secondly, they shrug off the dust of dependence from them and infuse in them a confidence in their own abilities. Both results are pious and worth striving for. Rapport is also struck by being sensitive to their problems.
Once rapport was built with the people, our manpower was adequatelt trained so that they do not approach the village with incomplete solutions. A ‘Technical Manual’ and an ‘Inter-personal Communication Manual’ were prepared for the district. Trainings were more in the form of sharing experiences with each other on a regular basis, because the hurdles faced in the programme were more or less similar. Most people may in general agree that toilets are to be built but would have many misconceptions about the space it requires, whether it smells, how much money it requires, and how much water it requires. Having perfect answers to these questions is a must before the village is approached, as also the knowledge about when to reveal this information for best results.
We also ensured that these villages get to see an ideal ODF village and see the change for themselves. Seeing is believing. No amount of lectures and discussions can clear doubts or change minds as well as a visit to a good village. This was also not easy to achieve. We would lure villagers to get to see some nearby religious places or Ellora caves and also show an ideal village on route. Most often the visit had a tremendous effect and villagers would often take pledges/begin to plan even on their way back.
With repeated follow-ups from our side, and continuous visits to villages, our team began to achieve positive results. They would sometimes be pleasantly surprised to realize their potential. The love and affection that they got on achieving the result was enough not to just keep them moving, but was also inspirational for others. The team of our employees began to get strengthened, as our roots in the community began to spread. The trigger persons from the ODF villages became our best friends and companions. Your team and strength increases as you go ahead on the path. There are people like Dr. Daulatrao Gade of Warud Khurd, writer, who are waiting for any genuine good effort for development. They join the wagon and spread the flame. We happily realized that employees from other departments also began to get involved and the reason was not too far to fetch. Each one of us has roots in the village, and realizes the need for sanitation and cleanliness, as also the complexities involved in triggering a positive behavioural change in the village as a whole. That this one campaign achieves much beyond a sanitized community began to get clearer by the day. And hence, our employees began to join the movement in hope that they would experiment it back home in their own villages as well.
Support began to come from all sections of the society. We were reluctant to involve bankers in this programme because of the mistaken belief that bankers necessarily would mean loan to people for construction of toilets, and this would lead to similar demands from elsewhere. Until we met Sh. Kulkarni, Branch manager, Badnapur, AJGB. This person has a good philosophy. One, he spends time with people to build rapport with them, and know the reasons for non-payment of loans. He believes, that non-payment is due to unwanted expenditure and if that can be controlled, repayments happen. So why not construct a latrine and avoid expenditure on health! He convinces the community and they listen. His reward at the end of the day is not just repayments of his bank loans, but also the love of the people where he works. He nurtures, and empowers SHGs, and they in turn take up the issues of the village.
The people’s representatives also joined and led the campaign. One of a non-official’s family actually complained to me that their family business has begun to suffer because he is working 24 hours a day 7 days a week for ODF campaign! Hats off to such people whom this world shall remember for their positive contribution to the society!
The goal-inspired manpower’s potential is indescribable…
The triggers
“Kapurs, Gauris and Shens exist in each village”
Of how to proceed in a village, Sh. Madhav Patil tells an interesting fact. He believes that three categories of persons exist in each village. 1-2% are of the nature of ‘kapur’ i.e. they get ignited very soon and adopt a good idea immediately. About 95-97% are of the nature of ‘gauri’ whose characteristic is that it gets ignited only when aired repeatedly. 1-2% are of ‘shen budhi’ i.e. not only they do not get ignited themselves, rather they would put off any flame of good idea/project. He says that the way to motivate a village is that first the kapurs should be targeted and ignited; the kapurs should then be motivated and facilitated to ignite the gauris after repeatedly speaking of the idea; and the shens should not be confronted but be best ignored. The experience is that even the ‘shen budhi’ [negative mentality] people join the wave once they realize that the entire village is heading in one direction. Thus the crux lies in identification of ‘natural leaders’ i.e. kapurs first.
Once these ‘kapurs’ are identified, it is essential to lay responsibility on them to set the ball rolling. That is very important. For this, a strategy we find particularly useful is to get aashwasans [promises] from individuals. It motivates them and showing trust in them makes them feel good. It is useful both in villages with no/weak leadership, where, such individuals take up the leadership role; as well as in villages with good leadership/triggers, where such appeals to individuals facilitates the work of the leader/trigger. The underlying principle is again the same- we move villages from dependence to independence to interdependence. For some decades now, the principle of supply driven, individual-beneficiary oriented schemes, has driven villages into tremendous slackness and dependence. ODF campaign hits at the root of this and tries to awaken villages from this slumber in the first place. It contradicts the first impression of the people that ODF campaign is a Government programme forced upon them. It only places options before the villagers, and lets them choose their path. From dependence, they move to interdependence, in the sense that for village to be ODF, each one has to contribute. It is a question of village, not an individual or a few individuals, and hence all doubts, apprehensions, mistrusts and jealousies within the village first necessarily have to be suppressed and only then the campaign achieves its end. One person in the village commits to give bricks/cement on credit to anyone in the villages, while the mason of the village does the construction for minimal or even no price. Planning is done to stock the material required for construction together so that there is saving of individuals due to bulk purchase. This is the interdependence we seek…and probably this goes in the direction of self-sufficiency as envisaged by the Mahatma.
‘Triggers’ is a very long and interesting subject. What shall trigger behavioural change in which village is at best guessed during the initial rapport building exercises with the village. No one strategy is common. However, a few things have been found to work definitely. The ‘shame of women’ is one issue that is very readily realized by the women specifically and the community in general. It appeals much more to the community than lectures on the harmful effects of open defaecation on the health of the people. Also, tactful approach helps. For e.g. we have a team of Mirkle and Manish where Mirkle first tries to insult the village by speaking in a harsh language as to how they don’t have respect, don’t care for shame of women and many such things... followed by Manish who would seemingly take the side of the village and extract from them that they are not so shameless and would make their village ODF! Prestige of the village is another important issue, and Nirmal Gram Puraskar at the hands of the President of India lures many a sarpanches. Sometimes small gestures by our team such as not accepting satkars/food etc. in non-ODF villages hurts a village and makes them sit and give this issue a serious thought.